Charging for applications! Its not right.

So I got into a heated debate over at modmyifone over the developer of inteliscreens resent decision to charge for his application. Its a great application and definitely a need for some people. The thing is it does not follow apples SDK rules so it can not be distributed threw the appstore. So he has no choice but to distribute it threw installer. Thats fine by me.

I just don't think its fair to us the consumer to pay for an application when there is no way for them to know if there product will work the day after, a month, even a year from now. How can a developer promise there customers that the application they buy today will work tomorrow. In the jailbreaking community there is just no way to know what a future update will bring or even knowing if you install something else will that app still work.

With the upcoming appstore apple will have all the incentive they need to make sure these kind of applications do not work. After all theres money at stake now.

I'm not saying a developer can not charge for it. It a free country you can do what you want. I'm just saying its wrong to sell someone something like this if you have no idea if will or even can support this in the future. Buy selling applications like this to people your making a huge investment and its your responsibility as the developer make sure that my money did not go to waste.

With the SDK apple has set it up so with future updates applications purchased threw the appstore will continue to work even if that developer call it quits an never updates it again.
Apple has done what they have to do ensure that. The jailbreaking community does not have that. Nothing is certain when is comes to are applications. Does anyone remember iFuntastic? what ever happened to that?

Donations to me are the only feasible option for a developer in the JBing community. Theres no commitment to anyone or any application. You put your application out there and if its good enough and people like it they donate.

Basically if you want to make money develop an application for the appstore and if your doing this for fun as a hobby stick with jailbreaking. But its just not fair to us for a developer to charge for something he can not commit to.

One more thing. Dont you think turning jailbreaking into a business is just going to give apple one more reason to put a stop to it? If there not getting there cut there going to stop it.

I think I it was MooTheCow who was saying that one of his apps had hundreds to thousands of downloads in a week, and the amount of downloads he got was 5-10. (I don't remember it exactly, but along those lines)

The system we have in place now with donations is flawed considering a minute fraction actually donate, so the rest of us freeload (myself for example

I'm sorry but I also don't agree with charging for apps built for a jailbroken ipod. I would liken it to charging for a cd of pirated software in a way - okay... before your eyes start rolling I AM aware that the piece of code is, in all likelihood, the authors own work and he has spent many hours developing it, but as it is on a semi-"illegally hacked" system there are no consumer rights, no promises made by the author to provide updates and no assurances that it will work in the way you expect.

A donation system is far better... if you truly need to fund writing ipod touch apps as a way of living and a source of income then either incorporate nag screens that require a donation for removal or just code for the apple app store. On the other hand there's always the freedom of choice and we as the users do not have to pay for apps on jailbroken devices.

If I really needed to use an app on a jailbroken system I would in all likelihood stump up the cash, if not it would be removed after the demo period expired.

People are putting in hard work and time to create something that people can use.

This same principle can be put into someone making a chair. Should he be able to charge for the Chair? Or does he have to give it away for free?

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Totally different. If I buy Call of Duty 4, Microsoft Word, a chair. I would expect those things to work for as long as I own them.

Call of Duty will always work in my playstation, Microsoft Word will always work as long as I make no major hardware changes or OS changes to the machine I purchased it fo and a chair will alway hold my fat ass as long as I don't break it.

An application like this you don't know if it will work tomorrow.

If you bought the $20 Jan update and tomorrow it stopped working or if you installed something from the appstore that disabled it no one here would stand for it. Why is it different in this situation?

I'm sorry but I also don't agree with charging for apps built for a jailbroken ipod. I would liken it to charging for a cd of pirated software in a way - okay... before your eyes start rolling I AM aware that the piece of code is, in all likelihood, the authors own work and he has spent many hours developing it, but as it is on a semi-"illegally hacked" system there are no consumer rights, no promises made by the author to provide updates and no assurances that it will work in the way you expect.

A donation system is far better... if you truly need to fund writing ipod touch apps as a way of living and a source of income then either incorporate nag screens that require a donation for removal or just code for the apple app store. On the other hand there's always the freedom of choice and we as the users do not have to pay for apps on jailbroken devices.

If I really needed to use an app on a jailbroken system I would in all likelihood stump up the cash, if not it would be removed after the demo period expired.

Totally different. If I buy Call of Duty 4, Microsoft Word, a chair. I would expect those things to work for as long as I own them.

Call of Duty will always work in my playstation, Microsoft Word will always work as long as I make no major hardware changes or OS changes to the machine I purchased it fo and a chair will alway hold my fat ass as long as I don't break it.

An application like this you don't know if it will work tomorrow.

If you bought the $20 Jan update and tomorrow it stopped working or if you installed something from the appstore that disabled it no one here would stand for it. Why is it different in this situation?

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Well there is the thing, Call of Duty 4, Microsoft Word, a Chair. COD4 will work on the platform you bought it for because it was DESIGNED for that platform. Microsoft Word will work with Windows because it was designed for Windows, but as you said, as long as you don't make any changes, it'll still work. This is also the same as Jailbreak apps. Software is always an unknown. Of course, for a Jailbreak app, it will of course go through rigorous testing to see what parts work and what parts are buggy. How does he have no right to charge for his hard work? Even if there is no guarantee that it won't work, he can just fix it in an update. It'll be wrong if he charges for the update though. But if he doesn't then everythingss fine.

As for the Jan Update, if it WERE to be disabled by the AppStore, I'm sure you would be reimbursed or they would be on the AppStore for purchase.

And let me ask you this: What IF the AppStore apps are cracked and were put on Installer and when you install it, it damages your device, what do you do then? Do you go to the developer? Apple?

Well there is the thing, Call of Duty 4, Microsoft Word, a Chair. COD4 will work on the platform you bought it for because it was DESIGNED for that platform. Microsoft Word will work with Windows because it was designed for Windows, but as you said, as long as you don't make any changes, it'll still work. This is also the same as Jailbreak apps. Software is always an unknown. Of course, for a Jailbreak app, it will of course go through rigorous testing to see what parts work and what parts are buggy. How does he have no right to charge for his hard work? Even if there is no guarantee that it won't work, he can just fix it in an update. It'll be wrong if he charges for the update though. But if he doesn't then everythingss fine.

As for the Jan Update, if it WERE to be disabled by the AppStore, I'm sure you would be reimbursed or they would be on the AppStore for purchase.

And let me ask you this: What IF the AppStore apps are cracked and were put on Installer and when you install it, it damages your device, what do you do then? Do you go to the developer? Apple?

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Thats it right there. Microsoft apple or any other software developer would not sell software that they could not guarantee would work on the system it was intended for. Why because its wrong. Look at the mess Vista coused Microsoft when there product didn't work on what it said it would.

The same rules should apply here if you can not guarantee your application to work as intended you have no business selling it. Reimbursement should apply here to.

As for cracked AppStore apps on installer. I'm not poor I would just buy it from the AppStore as intended and it would work as intended.

Thats it right there. Microsoft apple or any other software developer would not sell software that they could not guarantee would work on the system it was intended for. Why because its wrong. Look at the mess Vista coused Microsoft when there product didn't work on what it said it would.

The same rules should apply here if you can not guarantee your application to work as intended you have no business selling it.